mgo.licio.us

"The face of the operation is Briatore (referred to exclusively in the film by his colleagues and angry, chanting detractors as "Flavio"), an anthropomorphic radish who spends most of his time at QPR plotting to fire all of the managers."

At press time, Harbaugh had sent Michigan’s athletic department an envelope containing a heavily annotated seating chart, a list of the 63,000 seat views he had found unsatisfactory, and a glowing 70-page report on section 25, row 12, seat 9, which he claimed is “exactly what the great sport of football is all about.”

The years in the early 2000s were pretty good, but not at the same level in terms of five star recruits and players at the top of their position.

In 1998, Drew Henson was #1 overall in most recruiters' eyes, which was basically Tom Lemming and Athlon Sports. David Terrell and Marquise Walker were top 5 or top 10 WRs if I'm correct. Hayden Epstein was either the top kicker or top 5 kicker. And I haven't gotten to Victor Hobson and Larry Foote. Or Cato June. These guys were from all over the country. Lots of NFL draft picks in that class.

Those football preview magazines all had recruiting class rankings in them, right? So for all those years before 2003 I wonder if people could pull out their old issues and compile them. I probably have some of them in a box somewhere. hmmmmm...

Yeah, I'm pretty familiar with our recruiting history. Regardless, I can't imagine a circumstance under which I would ever say that Michigan football is "overachieving" recruiting-wise. This is Michigan, fergodsakes, and I am not surprised.

"An amazing four recruits - quarterback Drew Henson, running back Justin Fargas, and wide receivers David Terrell and Marquise Walker - were ranked among the top three players at their positions, with Henson the No. 1 pro-style QB and Fargas the consensus No. 1 tailback nationally."

Mentioned this in the other thread about another VA DL visiting us. Fact is that there has been no UM class as good as that 98 class which was unanimously #1 in the sites/pundits of the time. The Parade All American team was literally almost half Michigan commits. It was insane. This class would have to pretty much not miss on a single major on their "legit shot" board to compete with it.

How often does a program coming off an 8-5 season, 9 years removed from its last conference title and with a 2-8 record in the most recent decade against its chief rival manage to pull off a class like what Hoke and Co. are in the midst of assembling? Notre Dame is the only recent example I can think of that would fall into this type of category.

Michigan is absolutely overachieving right now on the recruiting front. Hopefully we'll improve our record over the next couple of years so that these type of recruiting classes won't seem like such an overachievement relative to our on-the-field performance.

that we haven't yet returned to what most Michgian fans would define as "business as usual" on the field. We're getting there, and should probably be back to the traditional Michigan standards at some point over the next couple of seasons. But until that happens, I would argue that we are overachieving from a recruiting standpoint.

Ole Miss is either overachieving or overpaying - I haven't figured out which yet.

By NW's recruiting standards, this is as hot as they've even been. Two 4-stars plus Doles in the span of a few weeks is outstanding for them. And better than anyone else in the Big Ten outside of Michigan over the same stretch.

You know what? You're right AND you make excellent points. Have a cookie and feel special, because you've earned it, buddy!

The ESPN video guy is misleading. At first glance it makes it seem like Northwestern is in the hunt for Jabrill Peppers. "The number two player in the country is about to make his decision and the Northwestern Wildcats are recruiting red hot."

What he should have said was "Jabrill Peppers is about to make his decision. In other news, Northwestern is putting together a much better recruiting class than they normally do."

Either I've got super powers, or there are a lot of friendly people in this thread.

“True loyalty is that quality of service that grows under adversity and expands in defeat. Any street urchin can shout applause in victory, but it takes character to stand fast in defeat. One is noise — the other, loyalty.”

Speight already has the poise of a 25 year-old QB when speaking to the media and he isn't even a senior in HS yet. He has the potential to be the football team's Josh Bartelstein but with 5-star talent. I think he should get an invitation to the Elite 11 finals just for leadership abilitiy.

“True loyalty is that quality of service that grows under adversity and expands in defeat. Any street urchin can shout applause in victory, but it takes character to stand fast in defeat. One is noise — the other, loyalty.”

Did anyone else catch that little smirk from Tom VH when asked about Michigan's chances with Peppers? It looked to me like he knows something that the rest of us have been assuming for a while now, as the stars have been lining up one-by-one in Jabrill's recruitment.

If Michigan landed Peppers, he'll be a recruiter, it'll have a "huge" impact on other prospects.

Knows for a fact that Peppers is close to Hand and it will have an impact.

Hand wants to play with other top prospects, Peppers has already spoken with him about attending the same school.

My personal thoughts, I think we get both Peppers and Hand. I think if Hand had to commit today, it would be VT, if he had to commit next February it would be VT...but I think Michigan makes up ground every day (before the pressure to stay home in Feb would be too much).

“True loyalty is that quality of service that grows under adversity and expands in defeat. Any street urchin can shout applause in victory, but it takes character to stand fast in defeat. One is noise — the other, loyalty.”

OL and S worry me, but we've recruited the hell out of the OL and we've got a bunch of "potential" safety prospects. SLB worries me a little bit because I think we finish #2 for Winovich (who I really like) to Ohio.

Not sure on Brown, his recruitment seems to be just beginning.

All that said, it's so early that if we can get the heavy hitters, we have all year to identify new prospects, late bloomers, sleepers and camp standouts.

That is the biggest reason I hope these bigger names commit sooner, rather than later. It would be awesome for the coaches to go into camps knowing "okay, all we need is a OT, SLB, S and one other player and we're done."

I think it becomes fun for the fans that follow recruiting as well if it turns out like that because then we can follow specific recruits and positions to see who's going to get those last 3, 4, 5 spots.

“True loyalty is that quality of service that grows under adversity and expands in defeat. Any street urchin can shout applause in victory, but it takes character to stand fast in defeat. One is noise — the other, loyalty.”

I think we all need to tone it down on the Hand optimism. Outside of this blog, I haven't really seen anything indicating that there's a good chance he's coming. 247 has it like 93/7 that he's going to VT. I think we may have generated a self-perpetuating hype machine here

...I said "I think," that doesn't mean it's going to happen. It's just a blog, a place for sharing opinions.

And I truly think that if we can build momentum in recruiting, start off the year hot, and really do what our MBB team did in terms of "buzz"...Hand will end up at Michigan.

I also said that "I think" if he committed today, it would be VT...which means that "I think" VT is his current leader.

You don't have to share my opinion whatsoever, but isn't that the point? I don't think we'll get Chase Winovich, I'm sure there are a lot of Michigan fans that disagree with that as well. Probably some Ohio fans too.

And "hype machine?" We're talking about top 5 players in the country. Players that most experts say Michigan is at least in the top 3 for. I'm not sure why any of this is inappropriate or needs to be toned down.

“True loyalty is that quality of service that grows under adversity and expands in defeat. Any street urchin can shout applause in victory, but it takes character to stand fast in defeat. One is noise — the other, loyalty.”

I said it because I've seen very little evidence that we're in the lead or potentially in the lead.

Sue me, but this reminds me a little bit of EJ Levenberry. We got some good news, clung to it with all our might, told everyone else to STFU when they said he was going to FSU, and then remained convinced he would come here as soon as we came calling like a Bucknut to Dymonte Thomas.

IMO, that's OK in this case. I can make a very good arguement why Hand could be Blue, and you could make a very good arguement why this could be Levenberry 2.0.

I'm okay with that, it happens when you're talking about opinions.

But, I think both can be valid. It's not like we're talking about a player who doesn't have Michigan in the top 3.

Most people would agree that it's VT/Michigan right now. The level of one teams lead over the other can be discussed, but I would venture to say a vast majority thinks that right now it's between those two schools.

Hell, even if you think it's VT, I'm sure people think Michigan is a lot closer to Hand than say Rutgers or Stanford to Peppers...should Rutgers or Stanford stop talking about Peppers? If so, tell that to David Shaw and his cryptic tweets that are breaking NCAA rules if they could ever be proven.

“True loyalty is that quality of service that grows under adversity and expands in defeat. Any street urchin can shout applause in victory, but it takes character to stand fast in defeat. One is noise — the other, loyalty.”

Probably my favorite player on each side of the ball. Glad they're having a good time this summer. STAY HEALTHY GUYS!!!

National Championship Game Bound.

“True loyalty is that quality of service that grows under adversity and expands in defeat. Any street urchin can shout applause in victory, but it takes character to stand fast in defeat. One is noise — the other, loyalty.”

But a long way between now and February. We thought the same about Morris and Thomas for awhile.

If we land both, I couldn't care less about much else. Both are big time players. PERIOD.

Question for the recruiting gurus, scouts, etc.

How does Peppers compare to Hargraves and Fuller from this year?

How does Hand compare to the top DEs of recent years?

“True loyalty is that quality of service that grows under adversity and expands in defeat. Any street urchin can shout applause in victory, but it takes character to stand fast in defeat. One is noise — the other, loyalty.”